Oprah Winfrey begins farewell with star-studded final shows

Oprah Winfrey with Tom Cruise, one of many A-list celebrities at the recording of Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular Chicago, Illinois to mark her long farewell to daytime TV. Photograph: Barry Brecheisen/WireImage

Persuading A-list Hollywood talent to do anything is notoriously difficult. There are agents to negotiate, egos to massage and huge fees to discuss.

But when you are Oprah Winfrey and recording the last shows of one of the most successful programmes in American television history, normal rules do not apply. So it was that a veritable galaxy of celebrities descended on Chicago this week to pay homage to the departing goddess of daytime TV.

The list read like the cream of the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Tom Cruise was there. So were Tom Hanks and Will Smith, Madonna, Jerry Seinfeld and Stevie Wonder.

Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx and the basketball star Michael Jordan also joined in the adulation, as Oprah recorded her not quite last (second- and third-to-last) Oprah Winfrey shows in front of 13,000 screaming fans. Even Maria Shriver, recently split from Arnold Schwarzenegger, shrugged off her marital problems to answer Oprah's siren call.

The shows will all be aired next week, the final one on 25 May. That last show has not yet been taped and the contents are being kept a closely guarded secret. It is expected to be much more low key and feature Oprah speaking to her global audience.

It will bring down the curtain on a phenomenon that has dominated the US popular cultural landscape for nearly 25 years. It will leave a chasm in the TV schedules, and a vast audience up for grabs.

"It is going to be very hard to replace her. She was so unique and her approach and her background was so unique. She could reach across demographic and racial boundaries," said Professor Jeffrey McCall, a media expert at DePauw University.

That enormous reach gave Oprah tremendous power. Her talk show became the heart of a business empire that grew to include her magazine, a radio station and a production company and became responsible for a good chunk of local business in Chicago. It also made her a billionaire.

But even her personal riches were overshadowed by the influence that Oprah could wield over other people's success. The mere mention of a product on her show could see it cleared off the shelves the next day as viewers scrambled to buy it. Her famous book club could turn an unknown author into a bestseller overnight. It was all dubbed the "Oprah effect".

It was a remarkable achievement. Oprah was born to an unmarried mother in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in the Deep South. She endured hard times, including sexual abuse, until coming to the attention of a Tennessee radio station after winning a beauty pageant. She started reading the news and never looked back, moving to Chicago and finally landing her own show.

Her blend of homespun wisdom and intelligent chatter was perfect for an American daytime TV audience. Her show first broadcast nationally in 1986 and it rapidly became a smash. She shattered audience records and racial barriers as the thoughts and opinions of a black woman came to dominate white suburbia. She made a strength out of her own struggles — whether with weight or family problems — and America loved her for it. "She has an amazing empathic side. It is not fake. She does that emotional stuff very well," said Richard Laermer, a celebrity expert and author of 2011:Trendspotting.Oprah became a more powerful celebrity than the A-listers who flocked to her shows. They knew she could make or break their careers and movies. Little wonder, perhaps, that they gushed over her as they congregated for her last shows.

"It's no secret that millions of people are inspired by Oprah. I am one of them," said Madonna. Shriver said: "For more than 30 years you bestowed the most amazing friendship on me, have given me love, support, wisdom and most of all truth."

Lesser-known lights were also part of the love-in as they paid tribute to the impact of Oprah on their lives. They included an Afghan female talk show host, an abuse survivor and a foster-mother were also part of the love-in, paying tribute to the impact Oprah had had on their lives. Oprah's partner, Stedman Graham, perhaps summed it up best: "I cannot believe a coloured girl from the backwoods of Mississippi has done all you have done."

But, as with all things Oprah, underneath all the schmaltz and adulation was a serious point. Earlier this year, she launched her own TV network – the Oprah Winfrey Network – and the attention surrounding the departure from her trademark show will no doubt allow her to make a pitch to her audience to stick with her on her own channel.

"I am sure that is in her mind. With Oprah, nothing is left to chance," said Laermer.

Gaga steals No 1 slot

As Oprah Winfrey prepares to say goodbye to her daytime TV show, she suffered a tiny blow to her global prestige. Winfrey, a billionaire who earned $290m last year, was knocked off her No 1 slot on the Forbes 2011 Celebrity 100 list by Lady Gaga.

Winfrey did not sink far, however, as the business magazine rated her at No 2. Forbes explained that Lady Gaga was given the top spot, not for her greater earning power (she brought in a mere $90m last year), but because of her mastery of social media.

"Lady Gaga tops our power list not just because of her $90 million in earnings, but also because of her 32 million Facebook fans and 10 million Twitter followers, who helped move 1 million copies of her hit single, Born This Way, in just five days," Forbes said in a statement.Despite slipping a notch on the list, Winfrey is still keeping her head above some rarefied celebrity company. Coming in at No 3 – just pipping U2 – was 17-year-old singer Justin Bieber, who earned a staggering $53m last year.

The highest Briton on the list was Elton John at No 5, while Simon Cowell broke into the top 10 to take the No 9 spot.